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Newey: Lack of time caused Jerez test woes

18 February 2014 – Red Bull Racing design chief, Adrian Newey has said a lack of time was the main reason behind the squad’s problems during the opening 2014 F1 pre-season test at Jerez last month.

The Milton Keynes-based outfit did just 21 laps during the four days, the least of any of the teams in action, and while Renault has got most of the blame due to the issues with its new V6 turbocharged power unit, Newey has reiterated that there were a lot of problems on Red Bull’s side too.

“What stopped us at Jerez - on our side as opposed to Renault - was a problem where the bodywork local to the exhaust was catching fire,” he said at the RAC Annual Motoring Dinner, according to BT Sport. “It was really a lack of time [that caused the problem]. It was something we could have proved out on the dyno if we had managed to get everything together earlier. But Renault have been up against it in terms of their use of the dyno; [and] we have been up against it making the parts in time. So had we been a couple of weeks further ahead then that could all have been done in private on the dyno. But unfortunately it was done in public. Hands up on our side.”

Newey meanwhile also revealed that cooling is something that is a big issue this year: “The Renault seems to have a particularly large cooling requirement,” he continued. “It is certainly a challenge to package everything in. The radiator area we need to cool the charge air from the turbo and additionally all of the extra cooling we need for the electrical side of things - the batteries, motor generator unit, control box - is roughly double last year's car with the V8. So trying to package that in without compromising the aerodynamics too heavily is a very big challenge.”

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